Jim Davidson laughs off critics who slate him insisting: I'm not a racist homophobic comic

THE controversial 60-year-old, who sparked a furore after a spat with telly presenter Brian Dowling in which he used the term “shirt lifter” on ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2007, says he supports gay marriage an immigration.

COMIC Jim Davidson has spoken out in favour of the SNP’s Bill on gay marriage and reckons Government ministers have “a cheek” to tell Scotland what to do with the pound.

The ardent Tory, who has been blasted for homophobic and right-wing material, has praised the Scottish Government for legalising same sex unions.

The controversial 60-year-old, who sparked a furore after a spat with telly presenter Brian Dowling in which he used the term “shirt lifter” on ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2007, says he supports the policy for “levelling the playing field”.

He said: “I think that’s very good. I shared a house with a gay man for a while and I also remember when one of my gay friends’ partners died a good few years back there were all sorts of problems with the will.

“So of course gay people should be allowed to be married. It’s great. And why should straight people suffer on their own?”

The comic has spoken in the past of having a sleazy encounter with a man in a brothel in Berlin, thinking it was a woman.

He said: “I’m not homophobic. All that probably comes from me saying what I said to Brian Dowling. If people want to say that’s homophobic, let them. It’s ridiculous. I know what I am and all my gay friends know what I am.”

Davidson's comments to Brian Dowling on Hell's Kitchen sparked row

Yesterday, Davidson was in Glasgow – the city where his father was born – and he is a regular visitor.

Despite his Tory views, he’s not pro-Union. He said: “I think England has a bloody cheek. They should let Scotland keep the pound – so long as they take the weather back. My father is from here but I was born and raised in England so it’s not for me to say.

“I’d go along with what the Scottish people want.”

In what some people might see as another surprise, the comic said he didn’t support UKIP and isn’t anti-immigration.

And he said he is now a bigger star than ever after winning Celebrity Big Brother last month. He should have been in the 2013 series but was arrested and accused of historic sex offences before the case was dropped.

Davidson said: “I was contacted by Nigel Farage after the police told me there would be no further action against me. He was a really nice guy, didn’t ask me to get involved in anything.

“Anyway, I’m not in line with his politics. My policy on immigration is that we need it. We can’t be in the European market and then have our own little rules.

“I might be the only person who’s allowed to walk around Glasgow who was a well-known supporter of Margaret Thatcher. I got mobbed earlier on going to HMV. I was a showbiz star before. But after Big Brother, it’s celebrity.

“Even the people who I’ve seen for years at my local Co-op have started asking me for autographs.”

Davidson reckons his CBB victory shows there’s more affection for him in Britain than many might have thought.

He beat bookies’ favourite N-Dubz singer Dappy to the prize, with the runner-up later claiming he saw the dad of five as a “father figure”.

The result marked a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the five-times married star.

But he remains unrepentant over his shocking views on people with disabilities at his gigs.

Davidson found himself at the centre of a discrimination storm when he walked off stage at a gig in 2003 after spotting people in wheelchairs at the front of the stage.

Jim beat Dappy in Big Brother (Image: Ian West/PA Wire)

Yesterday, he defended the move, claiming he’d do the same thing again.

He said: “There were 18 wheelchairs down in the front row. I asked them to move because they were all howling and there was a big kerfuffle.

“I thought it would maybe be nice if the wheelchairs were moved to the side.

“I’d do it again tomorrow if there was another obstruction of some description. The people up the back don’t know there’s a bunch of handicapped people down the front shouting and screaming and hollering.

“The drunks at the back think they’re hecklers and they start shouting and screaming at me. You have to control an audience. I think I was had over. I was used by someone trying to make political gains from me so I went home.

“Now I would make sure disabled people were in a position to watch and enjoy the show without having others think there were some people down the front ruining it.”

Davidson was in Glasgow to promote appearances at the city’s Pavilion Theatre. He will also perform in a career retrospective at the Edinburgh Festival.

He said: “I was arrested at Heathrow airport last year. But I was s******* myself about going on the show and so God stepped in and prevented me.

“I lay in that cell thinking, ‘I’m meant to be on Big Brother and here I am arrested for stuff I know nothing about.’

“A year later there I was handcuffed to a bed with Linda Nolan, thinking I wish I’d been back in that cell. That’s the difference a year makes.”

Corrie stars Bill Roache and Michael Le Vell and former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis have all been cleared of sex offences after trials but Davidson won’t be drawn on their cases.

“That’s not fair for me to comment on,” he said.

“The public might think there’s a witchhunt but I didn’t.

“When you find out what you’ve allegedly done you go, ‘Phew. Thank God for that, thought it was something I’d actually done.’ The police had no choice but to investigate allegations.

“The ones who nicked me were fantastic, very thorough. That’s how they realised the allegations weren’t worth carrying on with.

“But it’s Pol Pot syndrome. He killed all who went before him and called it Year Zero.

“Happened with Ben Elton. When he proved you could be a stand-up without being funny, the floodgates opened and all the guys who went to university took over comedy and the working class people got forgotten. Billy Connolly is the greatest stand-up comic this country has ever had … he came from the shipyards and the streets and that’s where I think great humour comes from.

“If I cured AIDS, rid the world of malaria and fed the whole of Africa, I’d still be that racist, sexist, homophobic comedian.

“It doesn’t matter to me what people think. It bothers me if they laugh or don’t laugh. Or if they put your name up in the theatre and they don’t come.”

Jim Davidson is at the Pavilion’s 110th anniversary show on Sunday, March 2. His stand-up show No Further Action will be at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Pavilion on October 31 and November 1.